Hey guys,
So I'm still a beginner, and I have taken an interest in clawhammer style, and specifically g-modal tuning (but that's besides the point).
Anyway, I've gotten as far as getting fairly comfortable with the basic clawhammer strum, and I want to take it to the next level and play an actual song. So naturally I started looking at tabs, and I've taken an interest in a few songs (namely Cripple Creek and Shady Grove).
The question I have is how do chords fit into playing an actual clawhammer song? I found an awesome site which shows chords (http://chordlist.brian-amberg.de/en/five-stringed/c/) but when I look at at video like this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCyq-rNQdMw it doesn't look like he is playing with chords at all--seems like he is just fretting individual notes according to what he knows from looking at a tab.
Will learning chords help me master a song? Or is it best to just play the measures according to how I see them on the tab?